My mom showed up part way through the day, which was really nice because she is really supportive and doesn’t get to attend too many of my events, and it left me feeling at home. She is a competitive asset to have as she is a coach and rider herself, and knows how to question you to prepare your game for competition. The race was delayed due to some accidents, so I took my time to descend the course, get geared up and then do a good warm up before I caught the shuttle to the top. The shuttle up was surreal, being full of good friends, laughter and positive attitude. One of the things we have been working on in mental training is to be satisfied with our abilities before racing and not have any emotional attachment to results, only responsibility to our processes, so on the shuttle up I was epically content with my surroundings and knew exactly what I had to do on way to my goal of having the run of my life and winning the race. There was only one shuttle for the pros, but when I arrived at the top of the course my name was already called to get in line, so it turned out well that I was already warmed up. In the gate I was playing with my level of activation to stay calm, focused and relaxed, and when I started I was in a perfect place to conduct my strategy down the track. My run went really well in a passively aggressive fashion. I knew every bump on the track, but did not really pin the course, style the jumps or use too much energy as I usually do on the track. Instead I focused on staying calm and focused on the task at hand, maintaining flow and smooth arcs, completely trusting my ability to carry out moves, conserving energy everywhere I could and every time I felt tired thinking to myself, in Dave’s words, go, go, go! I had some really fast sections and a few close calls, but mostly a lot of medium-energy smooth riding. I had one pretty close call getting off line in a high speed, slippery, tight and super tech section, but despite the challenging situation maintained a great deal of control off line. The course was really pedally and demanding on your cardio, so near the end I was getting really tired, but refused to let my speed succumb to my fatigue. I came through the finish just as I lost the ability to stand on my pedals from exhaustion, so I was happy with my use of energy through the course as I collapsed in a dizzy heap trying to catch my breath. The finish marshal told me I had the fast time of the day at that point, so I was stoked and decided to go up the trail a ways to watch the remaining pros come down. It was really fun to get to watch the others come down and yell encouragement at them as they hammered through the pain. In the end I held 4th place, being two seconds shy of the win, and was thoroughly satisfied with how everything came together. It was not a consistently fast run through the entire track by any mean. I know exactly where I stand with my performance, where my mistakes were and all the ways I can use the lessons from this race to improve. The run was, however, perfect to base fine-tuning of performance from, and with 6 races coming over the next 4 weeks as well as a fair bit of time with Dave to work on my mental game, I will get a lot of chances to try and make up those 2 seconds before I can gap the riders in front of me. I have my work set out for me for sure, and I can’t wait to get to it.
All the best,
Justin Terwiel
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